Will Brett Ratner Return To The Marvel Universe?

It would appear that X-Men: The Last Stand didn’t just leave a bad taste in the mouths of fanboys – it also soured the taste buds of director Brett Ratner as he has said that he isn’t particularly interested in returning to helm any new films starring the mutant superhero team.

Although, having said that, there are some films that he might be interested in tackling and they do feature a few of the original X-Men.

However, the outspoken director did mention a few X-Men spin-offs that he’d like to see:

“I heard a rumor that they were going to do a young X-Men [X-Men: First Class] which would be great. I would love to see a Magneto movie personally, because I love the Holocaust backstory. I’d love to see a Storm movie, too.”

As for whom he’d like to follow in his mutant footsteps? Steven Spielberg.

“I’d love to see Spielberg do it. A Spielberg X-movie would be something I’d love to see.”

Considering that Spielberg is now directing a Harvey remake – anything is possible.

Ratner’s 2006 film X-Men: The Last Stand was a much derided installment in the comic book franchise. The film was rushed into production by 20th Century Fox when original X-Men director Bryan Singer jumped ship to helm Superman Returns. Matthew Vaughan (the forthcoming Kick-Ass) was set to direct the film before he too departed at the last minute only to be replaced by Ratner.

Brett Ratner comes under a lot of fire in fanboy circles and his constant attachment to pretty much every film in production doesn’t do much to sooth their fears. However, the main reason that X3 didn’t live up to the first two films in the series was mainly because Fox wanted the film in cinemas for summer 2006. Ratner didn’t have enough prep time and the story wasn’t there because the studio wanted to wave the film in the face of Bryan Singer and his Superman film.

It would also seem that Ratner doesn’t need the X-Men franchise to survive – according to IMDB he currently has 12 projects in development.